Brotherly Complex
by Anya Urameshi
Summary: Chazz protects him because he knows what its like to have an older brother who's never around when he's needed. ChazzSyrus friendship. Not really ment to be a pairing, but sort of came out that way.


A/N: I'm not too sure about this one, but the inspiration hit me and I decided to jot it down, despite the fact that it never seemed to come out quite right.

I guess you can take it as romance. It wasn't intentional, but even I sort of think it came out that way.

I'd like some honest critique on this one, if you guys don't mind, okay? Because I really think it has potential as a good story, it just isn't quite there yet.

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The first time Chazz noticed it was just before that first fateful duel with Jaden. While he was busy preparing his deck, the young boy had walked up to him and stammered his way through telling the Obelisk off for using the duel arena without permission and possibly getting them all into trouble.

Chazz had stared at the blue-haired boy all during this tirade -right up until his words began to fade out with nervousness- wondering who exactly this little bratt thought he was. He'd snapped off something snarkish and the other boy had turned crimson and fled the scene in tears.

A small, almost imperceptible pang went through Chazz's heart. In his mind, he wasn't seeing the boy, but a younger version of himself after one of his brother's had yelled at him for bugging them.

After that, it was little things, like freaking out when Camilla threatened to use Syrus for a sacrifice; or teasing the bluenette about his inability to swim, then jumping in to play with him when the shorter boy actually had the guts to hit HIM in the face with water for the comment; or the way he generally paid more attention to the boy than he ever had before.

It was Atticus who pointed out that Syrus was giving him that attention back in spades. That the little bluenette seemed to encourage his small shows of...affection? protection? pity? No never that...and even instigated the small moments from time to time.

Like when Syrus asked him to give Powerbond to Jaden. The boy had asked Chazz -not Alexis, not Bastion, _Chazz_- to perform this task, which expressed the sentiment that he _trusted_ the black-haired boy; something that Chazz wasn't too sure how he felt about. Especially, when he realized that he trusted the bluenette too (which shouldn't have freaked him out as much as it did. After all, he trusted Atticus -and Jaden to an extent-, right?)

He was more touchy with Syrus than he was with anyone except Atticus (who didn't count because he was Chazz's best friend), always smacking the boy, or patting him on the head, or sometimes falling asleep on him. He never really noticed this until Alexis asked him about it one time. He didn't touch the little Slifer (no, wait, he was a Ra now, wasn't he?) for a whole week after that and actually went out of his way to avoid the boy thinking that Syrus probably wouldn't notice anyways.

Then Syrus cornered him in the classroom and demanded to know what he had done to piss Chazz off. The black-haired boy had played it off like it was just a misunderstanding, and the two had gone back to their friendship/whatever-the-hell-it-was-really.

When Syrus dueled his brother and found himself seriously injured (both physically and mentally) by the event, Chazz was one of the first people to visit him in the hospital. He spent the whole time trying to cheer the blunette up -with no luck- because it was depressing to see the small boy looking so broken.

The next time they saw each other, Syrus spent the whole day talking about his childhood; when he and Zane were little kids. He'd asked Chazz about his childhood and the black-haired boy told him it wasn't worth mentioning. Of course, this had prompted a three-day long period of Syrus pestering the other boy about the details until he finally snapped and ended up telling him the whole sordid tale.

Syrus listened intently and didn't laugh or tell him he was stupid. He just sat beside Chazz and occasionally nodded or gave responses where appropriate until the black-haired boy was finished. Then, he'd pulled the boy into a hug and told him that his brothers were the idiots, and that none of it was his fault.

And that was when Chazz realized that he'd been looking for something in Syrus that he couldn't get with everyone else, because they wouldn't really understand like the blunette did. None of them knew what it was like to be the one left behind, the one who always stood in the shadows while the people who were supposed to be there for you weren't, the one who was shoved aside like garbage in the pursuit of power.

Syrus was a little brother too. Syrus had been effectively abandoned by his older sibling too, and forced to find one in someone else (and if Jaden ever abandoned that kid again, Chazz promised to make the Slifer's life a living hell).

And so Chazz tried to protect him, because he had been there, he was still there, and because Syrus was probably his closest friend (after Atticus, of course).

And anyone who watched them could tell.


End file.
